The Dilemma
by Shane C
Summary: Jake has to make a decision; will he make the ruthless decision that's right for the human race, or will he make the decision that keeps him respectable and decent? Reviews welcome and necessary! Thanks for reading!


**Chapter 1**

My name is Jake.

Of course I have a last name, but I can't tell you what it is. I could, but it would be the end of the world if I did. Literally.

The Yeerks are here. Earth isn't the safe place you thought it was. We are not alone. As I write this, thousands of aliens are walking around in stolen human bodies. The vast majority of their time is spent trying to figure out how to take control of more humans. It sounds crazy because it _is_ crazy. But crazy or not, you need to believe. Your mom might not be your mom anymore. Your bus driver or dentist or baseball coach might not even be human anymore.

We write down our experiences in the hope that someday, someone will know the truth. We have no idea if we're going to win or lose. Honestly, most days I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time before our little resistance gets steamrolled. Once that happens, nothing will be able to stop them. That's why it's vital for us to stay hidden and to stay alive. Once we stop fighting, it's all over.

When I say us, I mean the Animorphs. Stupid name, I know…but for lack of a better word, that's what we are. A small group of humans who are able to morph into animals in order to fight the Yeerks. We don't have any other weapon. It sounds like a dumb power, but it's the only thing that keeps us from being dead. Really dead.

Our group of freedom fighters has exactly six members. I'm the leader. It's not a job I wanted. I'm not sure it's a job that I can even do. All I know is that I have to try.

Ax is our knowledge base on the Yeerks. He's an Andalite, one of the good aliens. We rescued him from the bottom of the ocean from the wreckage of a crashed spaceship. He looks like a centaur, only covered in blue fur. His face is shaped like ours, only his eyes are bigger and instead of a nose and mouth he has three vertical slits in his face. Andalites eat by crushing grass and absorbing the nutrients through their hooves. He also has two stalk eyes on top of his head that can swivel in any direction. Oh, and the tail. He's got a super powerful tail with a big blade at the end of it, and he can swing that thing like nobody's business. That tail has saved all of our lives lots of times.

It's saved Marco's life. Marco is my boy, my best friend since we were in diapers. Marco is the kind of guy who can be mortally wounded and still make a joke. It's not that he's not scared to die, because he is. He hates that he was drafted into this war, but he's got enough character to fight anyway. See, Marco knows what's at stake. He knows, logically, that if the Yeerks win, humanity is dust. He doesn't like it, he complains 24/7, but he's dependable. More, he sees things that everybody else misses. He's got this super analytical mind, and it's part of the reason we're still hanging in there.

Then there's Rachel. Rachel is my cousin. She's blond, tall, and beautiful – not that I think of her that way, but it's true. She's the kind of chick you see in the mall and think, '_That girl has it all. She'll never know a hard day in her whole life._' You'd be wrong though – way wrong. Marco says that Rachel loves the fight we're in, that she was born for it. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that Rachel has absolutely no problem tossing her life on the line in order to hurt the Yeerks. She's absolutely, one hundred percent committed to the fight. At times, it _does_ seem like she enjoys it. I like to think that it's just because there's no one else to do the job, and she takes her role in the fight seriously. Honestly though, her enthusiasm is something I use on a daily basis.

Cassie's my girlfriend. There, I said it. We don't go around making out and holding hands or whatever, but she is. I think she's beautiful and brilliant, and she's got the most sensitive and caring personality of anyone I've ever met. Her parents are both vets, and she gets us access to just about any animal you could ever want to morph. Marco and Rachel think her morality is a weakness; I think it's a quality that stops us from crossing a line we don't need to cross.

The last human member of our crew is Tobias. Tobias was just this kid that used to follow me around; I stopped some bullies from shoving his head in a toilet once, and he sort of latched onto me after that. He's sweet and sensitive and thoughtful. Well, he used to be…I guess he still is, but those qualities have taken a back seat even since he got stuck in hawk morph. The one major drawback to our morphing power is that if you stay in morph for longer than two hours, you get stuck that way. A super powerful being called the Ellimist paid Tobias back for a favor by giving him his morphing powers back. He even gave him his own human form as a morph. The thing is, his natural body is a hawk now. If he stayed human for longer than two hours, he'd be stuck that way. Tobias chooses to remain a hawk in order to keep his morphing abilities, so he can help us fight. It's a decision that I respect every day of my life…one that I'm not sure I'd be able to make in his place.

One other thing – my big brother Tom is one of them, a Controller. It's what we call someone who's been infested by a Yeerk. Tom's Yeerk is ambitious. He's constantly trying to make himself more useful than the average Yeerk, which means big trouble for us, naturally.

This particular story started on a Friday. Now that I'd started high school, Tom and I got home at about the same time. My parents work until five, so it was just us at the house. I used to be able to listen in on his phone calls, but he'd gotten a cell phone not long before this story. I guess the Yeerks don't mind paying the bill. Anyway, I'd lost the ability to spy on him at home, as my human self. I knew he used the phone to check in with his Yeerk bosses on a daily basis, usually about four PM, so I'd planned accordingly. I had to find out what he was talking about with them.

At three forty-five, I locked myself in my room, claiming to Tom that I had a migraine. I drew the blinds and curtains. I stood in the center of my bedroom in my morphing outfit, which was just bike shorts and a way-too-tight tee shirt, and closed my eyes. I focused on the image of the Green Anole Lizard whose DNA was swimming around inside of me and said silently, '_morph._'

The changes happened fairly quickly. I had the falling sensation that goes along with shrinking to a body about 1/500th of my normal size. My skin glazed over like a clay pot in a kiln, turned green, and started to crack into individual scales. My butt got pointy and shot out into a tail that would be longer than my entire body. My knee joints reversed direction and I fell to all fours. All of these things are weird beyond imagination; they felt like they should be excruciatingly painful, but I couldn't feel pain at all. Two minutes after I started, I was fully lizard with no trace of my human body left.

No time to reflect on the fact I'd just changed into a tiny lizard. I zoomed under my bedroom door and headed downstairs. It was winter, and even in the warm climate I lived it, that meant a coat when you went outdoors. With my nearsighted, fragmented vision, I saw when I got to the coatrack. I climbed the vertical surface as easily as you'd walk across the kitchen until I saw the grey coat that was Tom's favorite, and I slipped into the pocket. Then I waited.

I didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes, I felt something like an earthquake; Tom taking the jacket off of the rack and putting it on. I held on for the ride as he walked outside into the backyard. After what seemed like an eternity, the earthquake stopped and I heard the _snap _as he opened his phone. I couldn't hear who he was talking to, I could only hear what he said, but it was enough.

"Checking in." _Pause. _"Proceeding according to schedule." _Pause. _"Yes, he's a basketball player. I'm applying for an assistant coaching position." _Pause. "_Excellent. He's also a friend of my host's brother, Jake. Estimated timeline for infestation is one week._" Pause. "_No, that won't be necessary. I can use my host to get him alone. Once we have him, it will only be a matter of time before we get the father._" Pause. "_Of course. I'll check in tomorrow with a progress report. Goodbye._"_

I rode out the walk back inside and waited until the jacket was hung up and I'd felt the vibrations of Tom going up the stairs before I climbed out of the coat and made my way back into my bedroom. I felt anxious as I demorphed – who was Tom talking about? I didn't have friends outside of the Animorphs – I didn't have time for it. I had acquaintances, of course…part of our job was maintaining an image of normalcy.

'_I guess I'll just have to eavesdrop again tomorrow,_' I told myself as I finished becoming fully human. Whatever was going on, it was going to be something big – I could feel it. And I was supposed to be a part of it. I flopped down on my bed to be alone with my thoughts for a while.


End file.
